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Retired -- 78 years on
New retiree: Nelson Harvey is enjoying his first month of retirement at 93.
Photo: VANITA PRASAD
By VANITA PRASAD
AGEING WORKFORCE
Statistics New Zealand's 2009 study of the ageing
workforce* says a growing proportion of older Kiwis are
continuing to work beyond the retirement age. Older men are
twice as likely to be in paid employment as older women and
Maori people over 65 are more likely to be working than their
European counterparts.
* Labour force participation of New Zealanders aged 65
years and over, 1986-2006
NELSON Harvey has put in
a lifetime of work.
The 93-year-old from Hen-
derson has worked just as
long as Statistics New Zea-
land says the average Kiwi
male will live.
Mr Harvey is finally retir-
ing after 78 years of slogging
away in the working world.
He started work at the age
of 15 milking cows for his
uncle in south Auckland for
10 shillings a week.
We got housing and
accommodation provided of
course and that was pretty
standard for that time.''
He moved on to another
farm three years later where
machines were used to milk
cows. He worked there for
two years until a friend told
him about a new opportunity
at the Public Works Depart-
ment in Hunua.
He said it was great
because you got one shilling
and six pence per hour for a
40-hour working week and
you got to wake up at 7am.
At the time I was having
to wake up at 5.30am so I
thought it sounded fantastic.''
Mr Harvey began working
for the electrical branch of
the department just shy of his
21st birthday and dug four-
metre deep holes with a
spade or shovel for the feet of
large electrical pylons.
He soon went on to build
the pylon towers along the
Hunua electrical line.
We had no safety belts,
helmets or protection for
working up there and we
pulled up all the steel by
hand.
We would climb up the
towers using a series of span-
ners and stand in the places
we were working by wrapping
our legs around a pole,'' he
says.
Mr Harvey was eventually
given the job of being in
charge of the high tension
powerlines running from the
Henderson substation.
When I turned 65 I had to
retire from the job because it
was a government depart-
ment but at my retirement
party my friend told me about
a part-time job that was up
for grabs,'' he says.
So Mr Harvey started his
new job just 10 days after
retiring, packing and dis-
patching orders for the elec-
trical repair company The
Shaver Shop.
I told myself that I'd stay
in the job for a year just to
wind down from work but
that year went by so fast and
I thought I'd be a blimin' fool
to give such an easy job up.
So I told myself I'd go until
I was 70 and that would be
it.''
Mr Harvey's wife Betty
died in 1993.
That set me back a bit but
I didn't want to just mope
around so I carried on work-
ing.''
Mr Harvey racked up 28
years as an employee at The
Shaver Shop before deciding
to retire for good.
He never took a break from
work longer than the annual
leave he was allowed.
I was back to work the day
after my wedding, not like
honeymooners these days
who go on overseas holidays.''
He says it's been an
emotional journey reviewing
his lengthy career.
It brought tears to my
eyes looking back at every-
thing I've done and the people
I've met.''
Mr Harvey now spends his
time maintaining several
vegetable gardens and
flowerbeds around his prop-
erty. But the DIY-grandpa
has no desire to become a
man of leisure in his retire-
ment. No playing bowls for
me, that's for old people.''